Neverland Nevermore
by webofdreams89
Summary: After Wendy and the others all leave Neverland, Peter decides to pay them a secret visit and kind of, sort of learns the point of living.


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**Author's Notes: Okay, so this story completely did _not_ start out as a fan fic as all the rest I've written have. I'm taking AP English and at the end of every semester we have to do some completely ambiguous topic to write an essay on like 'good vs. evil' or 'who am i?' For the forth quarter, however, we were given 'the meaning of life' and were allowed to do whatever we wanted. I choose to write a short story, which eventually turned into this.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Peter Pan. Sure sucks to be me.**

**(See Alicia?? I changed it back to the original title just for you!! You can thank me later.)**

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**Neverland Nevermore**

--

The first thing Peter Pan noticed after returning to Neverland was the complete and utter silence. It was deafening and quite like anything he had ever heard. Wendy had once preached to him that new experiences, such as that with the darned _quiet_, were good for you and taught you to be a much better person. But Peter wasn't one for caring much about new experiences, particularly if they were supposedly good for you as _quiet_ seemed to be. It took him roughly five point three seconds to realize that he _hated_ silence. By the end of two weeks, it was driving him mad.

Of course, Tinkerbell was there, flying and flitting overhead, but she too grew bored when she saw how depressed Peter was. She sat watching Peter as he tipped his cap over his eyes to take an afternoon nap. Peter never took naps, rarely needed much sleep, the perpetual late-to-bed/early-to-rise-guy. She was fuming on the inside, downright seething, wondering exactly why one small, stupid girl continued to captivate her best friend's attention even after the said girl had abandoned him for _adulthood._ Simply the thought of it made her shudder unpleasantly. Who would ever want to grow up when you could stay forever young? To live with no obligations, with no nagging parents in a land of everlasting fun and adventures, it was paradise, Peter had told her so. Not that she would have known the difference. She was a fairy, and therefore born without responsibilities, unless you counted creating as much mischief someone of a six-inch height could possibly create.

Sighing dramatically as she fumed, hoping to draw Peter's attention to her and failing miserably, Tinkerbell flew over to where the boy lay and proceeded to kick him.

He immediately sat up, his green hat flying off his head as he glared at the small fairy. "What the heck was that for?"

_Because_, Tinkerbell said, knowing that Peter could understand her, _you're being stupid, just lying there like it is the end of the world._

"It practically is, Tinkerbell! What am I supposed to do? Captain Hook's been defeated, Wendy and her brothers and the lost boys have all left, all the Indians ever want to do anymore is smoke, and the Mermaids were rude to Wendy so I'm not ever going to talk to them again. I'm bored!"

_Get over it, you big cry baby,_ she told him. She had almost been tempted to tell him to grow up, stopping herself when she realized that _that_ would never happen.

--

A few hours later after hunting and catching two rabbits, Peter sat in front of the fire, watching the rabbits roast. It was just no fun anymore, now that he had no one to boss around, now that there was no one to laugh at his jokes (Tink had a horrible sense of humor and never knew whey anything was funny). There was no one to go on adventures with, there were no one to make fun of… Life was truly boring. He never thought it possible to be bored in Neverland, but it wasn't the first time, and definitely not that last, time he would be proven wrong.

Almost anxiously, he wondered how much time had passed on earth during the two weeks that had transpired since his arrival back in Neverland. Time passed differently in the two places. _They might be grown ups by now!_ he thought disgustedly. _They might all be grown up, in college, or have jobs. They might be married. Wendy might be married, and have children. _

For some reason, he didn't like the idea of Wendy being married very much. It didn't really bother him that the others might all be grown up with families of their own, he knew it was bound to happen, but _Wendy…_

Throwing his hands up, Peter walked away from the fire and slowly cooking rabbits, not stopping until he reached the beach, digging his feet in the cool sand as he sat down. He was hoping the cool ocean air would help drive his insane thoughts away, but was having no such luck. Instead, he was having repeated thoughts of Wendy holding an infant in her arms, rocking it gently as she sang the baby a lullaby.

Standing, he kicked off from the ground, soaring high up into the sky. _One peek couldn't hurt_, he thought as he sailed through the clouds.

--

Peter noticed a problem right away as he was roughly one hundred feet above the great city of London and that was that the fairy dust that granted him the ability to fly seemed to be running out. Not just running out, but _gone._ He had roughly five seconds to figure out what to do before he hit the ground. Surging forward, the aimed for what appeared to be a pool, hoping that landing in the water would be much softer on the body than taking a straight drop to the ground. In all honesty, his time in Neverland caused him to forget about gravity, especially the fact that he hated it.

Curling into a ball, Peter landed in the water with a painful _splash_, his back smacking the surface. His tip-toes touched the bottom and he gave a powerful kick, propelling himself back up the pool's surface. Dragging himself out of the pool, he limped all the way to the road, knowing that he'd have to _walk_ all the way to Wendy's house, which did not sound like much fun to him.

Making his way down the road, he didn't think it would be at all odd for people to see a dripping wet boy dressed in raggedy green clothes until he noticed the quizzical stares he was receiving from passers by. He hastened his step.

Once Peter found the house he was looking for, he was at a loss as for what to do next. He had never used the front door before, always flying straight in through the open window, and just the thought of knocking was foreign to him.

So he decided to climb.

Climbing up the side of a house was a lot more difficult that just flying in, he discovered as he landed on his butt, his foot slipping on the trellis. A light came on in the room he had been seeking, and a familiar face popped out.

"I say, who is there?" Wendy's younger brother John said. He didn't seem to be wearing his glasses and could no doubt not see who was lying in the grass of his yard, staring up at him sheepishly.

Peter cracked a small smile, standing up. "Come outside and you'll find out!"

_"Peter?"_ John asked incredulously, his face stunned.

"Be quiet, I don't want anyone to know I'm here."

"Sorry," John stage-whispered.

"It's okay. But seriously, can you come down here? I need to talk to you."

John nodded his head once before retreating. Less than a minute later, he was coming around the side of the house, glasses now on. "What's going on, Peter?" he asked concerned.

Now that he could see the boy close-up, he sighed in relief. John didn't appear to be any older than he had been when he had come to visit Neverland. Surely, this meant that Wendy would also be almost exactly the same age she had been. And if that was true, then she would not be married and old. Peter smiled happily at the thought.

"I came to visit you guys," he said in response.

John frowned, clearly not believing him. "Then why are you all wet?"

"Fell."

"Peter, you never fall. What's really going on?"

"I told you, I wanted to visit you guys."

"That may be true, but why don't you want to see anyone else. And you still didn't explain why your clothes are dripping wet. Something's going on. Why are you really here?"

Peter sighed dramatically, crossing his arms over his chest. He had forgotten how smart and, essentially, observant John was. "I came to make sure that you guys hadn't grown up yet."

John nodded. "You were lonely in Neverland, weren't you?" He didn't need a response to confirm his suspicions. A conspiratorial grin broke out across his face. "And it wasn't us that you came to see, it was _Wendy_, wasn't it?" Again, Peter remained silent. "So why are you all wet?"

Peter was growing angry. Throwing his hands up in frustration, he yelled, "I ran out of fairy dust, _okay?_ And then I landed in a pool in that park about a mile that way." He waved his hand in the general direction of the park.

"How did you run out of fairy dust? Didn't you bring Tink with you?"

"I hadn't planned that far ahead."

"Oh. Well, you should probably come inside then."

Peter shook his head quickly. "No, I can't let Wendy see me like this."

"Then where do you propose you stay?"

Ten minutes later, Peter was settling down in his make-shift bed inside Nana's doghouse. The dog had been allowed to go back inside to sleep at night so her house was unused. He didn't like that fact that it was cramped and smelled, but it was better than letting Wendy see him while he was so pathetic. And he still hadn't come up with a way to get home.

--

John was not the only observant one in the Darling family, however. It hadn't taken Wendy long to pick up on John's strange behavior and the fact that he seemed to be eating more at dinner while less food actually made it to his mouth (he was dropping the food in a cloth napkin in his lap and giving it to the guest in the doghouse to eat). Tinkerbell's reappearance confirmed her suspicions as she flew in her bedroom window not long after: Peter Pan was back in London.

Watching from the upstairs window, she saw John climb into Nana's doghouse with a cloth bundle in his hands. When he crawled back out a few moments later, sans cloth bundle, she decided to corner her brother and discover exactly why Peter was here but didn't want to see her. She couldn't understand the fairy's language as Peter could so listening to Tinkerbell's version proved fruitless.

"John," she said as he walked back in through the front door. He looked around guiltily, trying to find escape. The only place he could go was back out the front door. As he tried to open it, she quickly pushed it shut.

"Wendy," John said, turning to her, wearing a mask of faux surprise. "I didn't see you there." She frowned at him. "I'm sorry," he said quickly, not liking to upset his older sister because it didn't sit well on his conscious.

"John, why is Peter Pan living in Nana's doghouse?"

He dropped his head, knowing perfectly well that lying was out of the question. "Because he ran out of fairy dust and is now stuck here?" he said, making it seem a question.

"Why is he here? In _London_?"

Ducking under her arm, John shot up the stairs and to safety. "Ask him yourself!"

--

Tucking the small bottle of fairy dust donated to her by Tink, Wendy made her way out to the doghouse.

"John," she heard a somewhat muffled voice say, "you weren't supposed to come back until dark."

"It isn't John." Peter gulped.

"Wendy, how are you?" he asked as she sat in front of the dog house.

"Surprised. You?"

"Happy to see you!" he said with a nervous laugh.

"That's strange. Especially when you clearly didn't want me to know you were here. Why is that?"

"I wanted to visit you all."

"So why aren't you actually _visiting_ us? I know that I'm not accustomed to all the mores of Neverlandian society, but I don't think living in a doghouse is one of them."

All he could get out of his mouth was an ever-intelligent, "Uhhh…."

Leaning forward, Wendy asked, "Did you miss us? Is that it?"

Peter nodded almost solemnly. Admitting weakness definitely wasn't his forte.

"Then why didn't you just say so! You can visit John and Michael and the lost boys and me before you go back to Neverland."

"I can't go back to Neverland," Peter said, staring at his hands. "I ran out of fairy dust."

"What a coincidence! I just so happen to have a bottle of fairy dust in my pocket that should be exactly enough to get you home."

"Really?" he asked, clearly surprised.

"Yes. You should probably visit everyone first before I give it to you though."

Numbly, he nodded, following Wendy into the house through the front door. Taking him to the play room, he saw it filled with young boys of varying ages. The room went silent when they walked inside.

Clearing her throat, Wendy said, "Peter has decided to pay us all a visit before he returns to Neverland."

Instantly, bodies were flung at the boy as everyone was trying to hug him. Choruses of 'we missed you Peter' and 'you can't stay' rang through the room.

After roughly an hour of catching up, Wendy announced that it was probably time for Peter to go so he could get home before dark. Both Peter and Wendy knew that it was impossible to know when it would be dark in Neverland, but no one else seemed to realize that.

"Give Peter a hug," she told the younger boys. They acquiesced, then stepping back. Wendy handed him the bottle containing the fairy dust. "Bye Peter," she murmured.

He took the bottle from her and froze. He couldn't decide whether he wanted to leave or not. Sure, when he first ran out of dust, he had been upset because he was stranded, but now that he hand been surrounded by his friends once again only to go back to such a lonely home, he was baffled as to what to do.

Wendy noticed his hesitation and was happy. "You _do_ want to go home, don't you Peter?"

It was then that he realized that he _didn't_ want to go home, that he would grow old if he had to as long as he could stay with his friends. "But what about Tinkerbell?" he asked. She was his friend too.

On cue, Tinkerbell came whizzing into the room, flying around his head.

"How do you think I got the fairy dust?" Wendy asked.

_I knew you would choose to stay here,_ Tink told him in her little fairy language. _So I followed you to help keep them in line._

"You're staying Peter?" Michael, Wendy's younger brother, asked innocently as he walked in the room. He had just woken up from his nap and had missed all the reminiscing.

Peter nodded. "Yeah," he said, slightly in awe of everything that had happened since he came back to London. "Yeah, I guess I am staying. Everyone that I love is here, so I might as well be here too."

"That's kind of the point of living," Michael said as he flung himself at Peter to give the older boy a hug, "being with the people you love."

Over Michael's small shoulder, Peter saw Wendy smile and he smiled back.

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**Author's Notes: Be kind and hit that review button.  
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